"System, show status."
The golden glow of the screen appeared before his eyes.
Strange initializing sequences flickered across the screen before finalizing and the status screen appeared in front of him.
His breathing hitched as he saw it.
[Host: Asterion]
[Age: 16 years old]
[Race: Human]
[Realm: 2-star(5th stage)]
[Physique: Void Physique]
[Ability: Infinite Integration]~1
↳ Available Integrations:
●Size Manipulation(Leviath) - The ability to change size to increase your damage or speed.
●Weapon Master(Romas- The Void Emperor) - The master and the weapon are one on the battlefield.
●(Empty) -
Asterion's eyes widened in astonishment. Second Star... Fifth Stage?
That wasn't possible.
To reach the Second Star, humans had to undergo another Voidlink which meant risking madness, corruption, or death.
Yet he... he hadn't even gone through it twice. It was his first call, the first Void Link.
He swallowed hard, a subtle tremor ran through his hands as he stared at the golden panel.
For comparison, the mayor of Eriandel himself was only at Third Star, the exact stage unknown, a level worthy of commanding the guards and maintaining order.
And here he was, a boy who just completed his awakening, but standing five stages into the Second Star.
"This… this can't be real," he whispered, his voice trembling between disbelief and awe.
But the screen remained as it is, unflinching.
He averted his gaze and saw the next information, to the ability of Void Physique - Infinite Integration.
It contained two integrations in it for now, Size Manipulation and Weapon Master, each with their own descriptions.
He got the idea of how he obtained Size Manipulation.
He was certain that he obtained this ability after consuming the spirit of that Leviathan-like beast.
After being trapped for nearly a year had increased his mental fortitude when he ate raw, poisoned meat and drank blood in this silent, suffocating abyss like structure while talking to no one but himself.
It was already astonishing he hadn't gone mad.
As for the other - Weapon Master...
His thoughts darkened. The memory of the black core inside his body, the essence of a Void Emperor, and the Leviathan-like spirit merging into his flesh resurfaced in his mind. It wasn't survival, for him, it was assimilation.
He didn't transform into what they wanted but instead, he consumed them. To be precise, he devoured them completely.
Which meant that the Void Emperor, the strongest of Void beasts, whose core he had assimilated with was a master of the weapons.
That could be the only explanation of why this integration was manifested by the Void Physique.
So he could get a trait not only by assimilation of a core but also absorbing the spirit of a beast.
'But how can I consume a spirit?' His thoughts wandered as this time he was only able to consume a spirit by accident.
And yet... if these two were only the beginning of his integrations, then what would be the end?
"Hahahaha..." He laughed hard at his stupidity as his ability itself explained that there was no end to strength and power.
This ability he gained, Infinite Integration - it wasn't just evolution, it was a path paved for him and only him, no one else.
An ability that will keep evolve him differently each time, rewriting him as he wanted until even heaven itself would have to bow down to him and fear what it had created.
And there was something else too, the 1 written after Infinite Evolution, but he could check it out later.
Asterion exhaled slowly as he steadied himself, his mind settling as the luminous glyphs started to fade around him.
Slowly, but surely, he had started to grasp his potential and what he had become after this awakening.
Just as he closed the status screen with a thought of his mind, unexpectedly, another presence arrived before him.
The air trembled around him, once again.
Then, from everywhere and nowhere at once, a voice resonated in his ears, cold and vast as the nothingness.
It was the will of the Void.
[Congratulations, Awakener.]
[Congratulations, Child of Fate.]
The voice was monotone, with no emotion but its weight pressed in his mind like that of an ancient being.
"You have impressed me… as much as I expected," it said.
"The Void didn't send you here for free. You will be our vessel, you will be our representative."
Asterion's throat tightened at the words. Was he just a pawn for the Void, the same Void which took away his parents? His eyes turned red in rage as he screamed-
"I WOULD NEVER BE A PAWN IN YOUR GAMES. I MAY HAVE AWAKENED BY YOUR POWERS BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN I BOW DOWN TO YOU, I CHOSE THIS PATH FOR I NEEDED STRENGTH, ENOUGH STRENGTH TO NEVER LOSE SOMEONE CLOSE TO ME AGAIN."
"DO YOU KNOW HOW I FELT WHEN SOMEONE ASKED ME WHAT DID MY FATHER DO, WHY DIDN'T HE EARN ENOUGH TO SUPPORT ME, WHY DID HE FOOLISHLY DIED INSTEAD OF RUNNING,
HE DID THAT TO PROTECT ME AND MY MOTHER FROM YOU, THE BEASTS CREATED BY YOU, SO LISTEN, I WOULD COME TO YOU SOMEDAY, AND THAT DAY WOULD BE YOUR END SO FINISH ME RIGHT HERE IF YOU CANNN!"
The Void seemed to ignore his wails and screams as it resounded once again in his head-
[You shall now be transported back to your world in 10 seconds.]
Asterion, with his now long silver hair and golden eyes, started calming down due to his mental clarity as the countdown started in his head.
10...
9...
8...
7...
...
3...
2...
1...
The space around him started to ripple. The ground cracked apart into shards as space itself began to split apart.
And then,
the world collapsed inward, folding into itself. For a brief instant, there was nothing.
Then Asterion blinked.
The echoes of his roar was gone. The void was gone.
He found himself standing on the same street once again. Dusty, quiet, and faintly familiar as if nothing had happened to him at all.
Only the faint hum of energy beneath the 2nd Star in his being reminded him that everything that occurred was real.
For a long moment, Asterion simply stood there, breathing the fresh air of the world he had left a year behind, or so he thought.
The familiar scent of soil after the rain, distant noises of cars and construction, and the evening wind flooded his senses.
Then, slowly… he smiled, for the first time after a year.
It wasn't a smile of triumph, but a quiet smile of relief mixed with his emotions and grounded reality. Slowly, his lips quivered as his eyes twitched, and before he could stop, tears started welling up in his eyes.
A sob escaped his throat.
He pressed a hand to his face, but it didn't matter. The tears fell freely.
The passerby murmured between themselves after seeing a teenager crying in the middle of the street.
And then, he started to run, towards his home, towards the only one remaining of his family- his mother.
His feet pounded against the cobblestones, faster and faster, his vision started to blur with his tears.
Every familiar turn he took, every flickering lamp on the side street his eyes grazed past, reminded him of where he grew up and that there was someone waiting for him.
He could finally see her again.
The thought alone made his heart ache more than any wound he'd endured in that endless void.
He ran through the narrow paths, past the clustered homes in the alley until he saw it. The familiar outline of a small home appeared in his eyes.
He started to sprint even more quickly until he reached the door of that familiar house.
He stopped at the gate, chest heaving. Took some deep breaths to calm down his racing heart as he knocked on the door.
Once. Twice.
The door creaked open slowly.
A woman stood at the doorstep, her hair was slightly disheveled, eyes showing signs of the sleepless nights she endured.
Their eyes met and for a moment, she simply stood there, as if her mind refused and thought it was another one of her visions of seeing her gem.
Then after a moment, her lips parted, hands trembling as she called out. "Asterion...?"
Clearly, the long white hair in contrast to his previous short black hair made her a little unsure of her guess but she still held hope.
And before his name fully escaped her lips, he threw himself forward, in her arms.
Tears poured down his cheeks as he clutched her tightly, as if afraid he wouldn't see her again.
She froze, then slowly wrapped her arms around him, her fingers trembling as they touched his warm back. The warmth of her body, the scent of home... it completely shattered the last piece of numbness that was inside him.
Moments passed as they hugged and cried, only the sobs were audible in the surrounding, ten or maybe fifteen minutes drifted past. Only the sound of her crying filled the room.
When her sobs finally began to quieten down, she pulled back slightly as she cupped his face with her shaking hands.
Her voice broke as she whispered, "Where have you been, my baby... for a week? The guards from the Watchtower told me that you were called to your awakening, but... I refused to accept it, you are still two years younger for that, but after days passed, I slowly started to accept it, I was so worried. So terrified something might have happened to you."
Her words trembled with both relief and fear of losing her child, her heart pulsing loudly with her every word as if in rhythm with her worry.
But Asterion, instead of replying, suddenly blinked. A week...?
His breath caught in his lungs.
Inside the void, he had survived for an entire year. He hunted, starved, forced to evolve just to survive. But here... only a single week had passed since then?
Time itself had betrayed its meaning to him now.
He looked into his mother's eyes as forcing a small, gentle smile on his lips as he spoke. "I'm fine, Mother. Really... I'm fine."
She searched his gaze for a moment, eyes darting to his now long, white hair but she didn't comment on it.
They now had all the time to talk about what happened but not right now. She just hugged him as if afraid he might vanish again.
Asterion said nothing more and simply hugged her back.
But deep down, as the memories of that endless darkness started to flicker in his mind, he knew the truth that he wasn't the same kid who had left a year-- or a week earlier.
Something in him had changed, and the change would keep on increasing, quietly and irreversibly.